Miguel Duhamel Returning to AMA Superbike for Laguna Seca Round

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Miguel Duhamel heads out of the pitlane at Mid Ohio during the summer of '91 on the Team Commonwealth Camel Honda RC30 for a rain practice session. Duhamel earlier in the season had won his first of five Daytona 200's while on his maiden ride for the Louisville-based Camel Honda team while replacing their injured rider, the late Randy Renfrow. Duhamel went on to also win 5 AMA 600 Supersport Championships and two AMA Formula Xtreme Championships.
The ride for the AMA round in Laguna Seca will be Duhamel's first on a Ducati in two wheel competition after having ridden Honda's for the better part of his racing career. Some exceptions to that are when he contested the World 500cc Championship for Yamaha in '92 and when he returned to AMA action in '93 riding for Team Muzzy Kawasaki. Duhamel won one of his 600 Championships while riding for Muzzy that year, as well. He also won his first AMA Superbike race at Heartland Park in 1990 while riding a Suzuki. Miguel last competed in AMA competition in the Daytona 200 at the beginning of the 2009 season on a Suzuki prepped by the Canadian Picotte Performance team.
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Good news to hit the motorcycle racing news pike this week is the return of 1995 AMA Superbike Champion Miguel Duhamel to the grid of the AMA Superbike round at Laguna Seca at the end of this month.
Teaming with Team Forza on a Ducati 1098R, Miguel will throw a leg over for this round in an attempt to help raise awareness for TERI Services for Children and Adults with Autism. At the time this is scheduled to be a one-off ride and any future rides, according to the press release anyway, would be based strictly on future sponsorship.

You can read this super news of Miguel's return to the AMA Superbike ranks via this press release thanks to the good folks at Moto Forza and Motorcycle.com:

http://www.motorcycle.com/news/duhamel-to-race-ama-superbike-at-laguna-seca-89772.html
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Happy Birthday to Miguel Duhamel From Stu's Shots!

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Miguel Duhamel on the #17 Team Honda RC51 rolls it out of turn 8 while qualifying for the AMA Superbike round at Road America in June of 2000. The new big-twin 1000cc RC came out with a bang and Honda looked to capitalize on the extra 250cc that twins were allowed over the four cylinder inline crowd. Nicky Hayden won Daytona on one with his championship in 2002 and Miguel took the bike to victory at Daytona in '03 as well in a Honda RC-sweep with Ben Bostrom in 2nd and Kurtis Roberts in 3rd. Miguel also won at Elkhart Lake in '00 when this was shot.
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The all-time winningest rider in AMA Road Racing, and AMA 600 Supersport competition as well, Miguel is seen on the #1 Smokin' Joe's Honda CBR600F while qualifying for the weekend's event at Mid Ohio in the summer of '97. Miguel won five class championships in the AMA 600 Supersport class and is the series all-time winner in the class as well. Miguel won the series championship in '91, '93, '95-'97. At one point in his career he had won 10-600 races in a row.
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I've been going to AMA road races since the '82 season, and first started going to WERA events when the big TZ's and the Harley Davidson two-stroke Italian twins were dominant in the mid-late '70's. But in all my years of following and going to races, I have never heard a roar from a crowd like what came forth all the way around the 2.5 mile Mid Ohio track during the AMA Superbike final in 1994 during the first few laps. EVER.
Harley Davidson had just gotten into the AMA Superbike series with their VR1000 and had hired Miguel Duhamel, fresh off his '93 run with Muzzy Kawasaki and winning his 2nd AMA 600 Supersport Championship. Harley was hot to win and prove they could get off the porch and run with the big dogs, and Miguel was hired to help prove it. And for that brief showing that afternoon in the summer of '94 he had damn near everyone in hearing and roaring distance believing it, too. After having put the almost-then-already-outdated VR on the front row during qualifying, The Master got the jump at the green flag of the final and led the first few trips around the circuit to the delight and glory of just about everyone present that day. Not to mention gaining a few new fans in the process. He did it again later in the year at Brainerd, and although I wasn't there for that one, I always swore I felt the vibration here in Indy from the roar up north. Even though the VR-thing never panned out-for Miguel or for H-D for that matter-about the only other accolade the bike had was Chris Carr putting it on the pole at Pomona in '95. But for those few shining minutes that hot summer day 16 years ago, the Harley VR reigned supreme in Lexington, OH., at the hands of The Grand Master Miguel.
Following Miguel into and through the carousel on the first lap of the final are (in no particular order) team mates Pascal Picotte #21 and Troy Corser #19 on the Fast By Ferracci Ducatis, Tom Kipp on the #16 and team mate Thomas Stevens on the #11 Team Yoshimura Suzukis, Jamie James on the #2 Vance and Hines Yamaha, Dale Quarterley on the #32 Team Mutant Ninja Turtles Muzzy-leased Kawasaki (and the winner of the '93 Mid Ohip Superbike final), and Tiger Sohwa on the Team Muzzy Kawasaki #41. Eventual winner Colin Edwards was right behind Sohwa and James and Tiger would round out the podium at the end of the day.
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After returning from Europe and his foray into the World 500cc Championship with Team Yamaha France-and winning the FIM World Endurance Championship for Team Kawasaki France while across the pond-Miguel was teamed with Dale Quarterley on the Team Muzzi Kawasakis, with Miguel contesting the AMA 600 Supersport Championship for the '93 season as well. Here's Miguel at Mid Ohio during the summer of '93 en route to winning the weekend's final and the championship at the end of the year. 1993 would be the second of Miguel's five championships in the class-his first in '91 riding for Martin Adams' Team Commonwealth Camel Honda. Miguel's other championships also came on Honda's, marking '93 his lone year on the Green Machines.
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Probably the bike he is best known for riding, if nothing else for the iconic purple/maroon and bright yellow paint job, Miguel took the Smokin' Joe's Team Honda RC45 to the top of the rung in it's second year of AMA Superbike competition by winning six straight races during the season to bag his only premier-class championship. The roaring RC V-4 was a screamer and Miguel tamed the beast as the '95 AMA Superbike Champion. Here he is in action at Gateway/St. Louis Raceway in August of '95 in what was the hottest weekend EVER attended by humans and machines alike. The bike dominated in it's six years of U.S. based competition, and Miguel won the Daytona 200 in '96 and it's last year of competition in '99. No one tamed the beast quite as well as Miguel did. He also finished second in the championship on this bike to Doug Chandler in '96 and '97.
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One of the all-time greats of AMA Road Racing is celebrating a birthday on Wednesday May 26th, and Stu's Shots wants to be one to wish him a big happy birthday!

Miguel Duhamel, the all-time winningest rider in AMA Road Racing history, with a total of eight-series championships, will be toasting his 42nd birthday tomorrow.
Since 1990, when he won his first AMA Superbike final at Heartland Park Topeka, Miguel has been not only the winningest rider in AMA history, but also one of the most approachable of riders and champions over the years. The fact that he still isn't racing actively/regularly now, in spite of his 42 years, is more of a testament to the series' and economic maladies of the last two+ years. If the man was out there on a top-notch ride, he would still be going at it strong, believe me!
With five Daytona 200 wins to his credit ('91, '96, '99, '03 in AMA Superbike and '04 in AMA Formula Xtreme), Miguel's winning record and championship record read like a who's who:
'95 AMA Superbike Champion
'04-'05 AMA Formula Xtreme Champion
5-Time AMA 600 Supersport Champion ('91, '93 (his only on a Kawasaki), '95-'97
'92 FIM World Endurance Team Champion
And those are just the MAJOR highlights. He also placed runner-up in the AMA Superbike Series in '96 and '97 to eventual champion Doug Chandler, and in '04 to eventual champion Mat Mladin. And he still stands second to Mladin in overall superbike wins, though by half of Mat's 82 premier-class wins.
Duhamel raced a very wide variety of machines since his first win at Topeka almost 20 years ago. Suzuki inlines ('90), Honda V-4's ('91 for Commonwealth Camel Honda and '95-'99, Honda's big-twin RC51 ('00-'03), Kawasaki inlines ('93 for Muzzy) and Honda inline fours ('04-'08). And that was just in the AMA Superbike Series. He also ran Honda inlines in the 600 Supersport Series as well as the AMA Formula Xtreme Series ('91, '95-'06), and Kawasaki inlines in '93 for Muzzy as well. And there could be more I missed, but you get the idea. The man has seen and embraced changes in the sport and has lead through those changes as well.
And he has suffered. Several near, career-ending injuries suffered at New Hampshire and at Road Atlanta that would have quelled mere mortals. But not Miguel. The Grand Master came through it all, even when he was being helped ONTO the bike and OFF of the bike (when winning the Daytona 200 on the RC45 in '99 he had to have help as his leg injury from the previous year was still healing.)
I could go on and on, but I have thrown in some bio and interviews at the bottom to help fill the stats in.
Needless to say, I have been and always will be a fan of Number 17, The Mighty Miguel, for not only his prowess on a bike and on the track, but as a great leader and representative of the sport, as well as a person. Very few in the paddock were as personable, friendly and outgoing as Miguel. And I've got a lot of signed pictures to back it up......
So on this fine day, Stu's Shots again says thanks to Miguel for all the memories, the wins, and all the agony you put yourself through to show the U.S. fans how ironclad you are and what a true champion and person you are.

And have a VERY Happy Birthday!
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Miguel's career highlights from Wikipedia.com:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Duhamel
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Dave Despain from Wind Tunnel chats with Miguel before the 2009 edition of the Daytona 200. This clip has some short, but terrific racing highlights of Miguel's racing career. Worth the 4 1/2 minutes to check it out and listen to the all-time winningest rider in AMA Road Racing speak about his past, present and future:
http://multimedia.foxsports.com/m/video/21921362/wind-tunnel-miguel-duhamel.htm?q=%22honda%22
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Miguel's bio as of 2007 from Motorcycle-USA.com:
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/474/1147/Motorcycle-Article/Miguel-Duhamel-Bio.aspx
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Here's an August 2009 interview with Miguel that shines a light on more of his thoughts and career from the great folks at RoadRacerX.com:
http://www.roadracerx.com/features/tuesday-conversation/tuesday-conversation-miguel-duhamel/
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One thing I would like to mention before I close. You would think after all Miguel has done for the sport and for the AMA and all of his championships that they would have an official bio on him. Nothing. Now he WILL be in the AMA Hall of Fame eventually, but to not have a bio on the winningest rider in AMA Road Racing with 8 championships to his credit is a disservice to this great man and rider.
Just sayin'. Whether Pickerington or Daytona is listening is another......

Again we'd like to congratulate Miguel and wish him a very happy birthday, and thank him for all of his years of riding hard and racing harder. And for being a champion's champion in life and on the race track as well. And thanks for putting up with me and signing the probably close to a dozen and a half or so pictures over the years! It has always been a pleasure to talk to and with you! Not to mention a good laugh or two.
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Scott Russell to Run WERA Endurance Race at Miller Utah

Scott 'The Screaming Chief/Mr. Daytona' Russell is scheduled to run the WERA Endurance race tomorrow at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah for Team Zyvax Yamaha. The team is a Graves Motorsports-sponsored team that consists of Dane Westby and Clinton Sellers, both of whom currently compete in the AMA Daytona Sportbike series. The Chief will be assisting them in their assault against the standard field of highly competitive WERA regulars, as well as Eric Bostrom, who will be racing for the first time since the end of the 2008 AMA season, in a tune-up ride for Graves along with big brother Ben and Chris Clark, who are currently team mates in the AMA Superbike Series for Clark Motorsports out of Las Vegas. It was announced a couple of weeks ago that E-Boz would be returning to the AMA Superbike Series at the end of July on a Yosh/Cycle World/Attack Performance Suzuki. Both teams will be on Graves-prepped and/or sponsored R6's for this race.
You can read the official release from Graves courtesy of RoadRacingWorld.com below, but if you are in the area this is a must-see event. To see this level of competition added to the already strong WERA racing standards will be an event to cherish! Let alone seeing The Chief and Eric back on the track again. Where's my magic carpet when I need it?!
The shot above is of Mr. Daytona in '92-the year he won the AMA Superbike Championship and the year before he went to Europe and won the World Superbike Championship for Team Muzzy Kawasaki. This was during practice for the weekend's events and Scott is making the ZX-7 based machine sing for the crowd.

Stu's Shots wishes The Chief the very best and I can only say I wish I could be there to see him on the track again. After his horrifying accident on the Ducati on the Daytona start line in '01 I didn't ever think we'd see him in active competition again-or at least not on a road racer. It will be like old times, and I hope a camera crew is on hand to film some of it. Monumental! And again, if you are in the area, check it out! It should be well worth your while.......

Thanks again to RoadRacingWorld.com for the Graves Motorsports release on this super event:
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?lnk=rss&article=40541
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Scott Russell Knows a Little Bit About Speed (TV)...

And you can bet he knows a little something about speed ON the track as well.

It was announced on Thursday of this week that Scott 'Mr. Daytona/The Screaming Chief' Russell would be re-joining the SpeedTV team to help out on coverage of the AMA Pro Road Racing scene in the States. Although we have had to deal with 'delayed' coverage and 'same-day delayed' coverage of our wonderful AMA Superbike series now for some time, at least we are back to 'same-day' coverage. And at least we are getting SOME tv coverage. In that respect, it could be worse. If you've been around anytime at all like me, think BEFORE cable or satellite. So, it can always be worse, believe me.

But having Mr. Daytona back in the booth for SpeedTV's coverage of the AMA Road Racing scene will be big. Having been there and done that on the race track, The Chief will be on the spot to help bring the viewers the info they need and want to hear. And having come in last year after Freddie Spencer stepped aside, with almost a year under his belt, Mr. Daytona should be able to deliver the goods to the viewer just like he did for the race fans for years.

And deliver he did. As the story has it, Scott went to Daytona in '85 as a fan and a spectator. That was the year Freddie kicked everyone's butt in ALL the classes, winning the 250GP race, the Superbike race, and the Formula One-based (at the time) 200 as well. Scott saw this and thought 'man, I want to do this' and the rest was pretty much history.

Starting off in WERA, he won a bunch of races and worked his way to the AMA and then on to World Superbike. Along the way, The Chief won the '92 AMA Superbike Championship, the '90-'92 AMA 750 SuperSport Championships (this was the 'old' SuperStock class and he still holds the record for 23 race wins), the '93 World SuperBike Championship, oh, and those five Daytona 200 victories as well (and with due cred to Miguel Duhamel, Mr. Daytona won ALL of his when it was based on the fire-breathing Superbike class.)

So needless to say, Mr. Russell does know a little something about speed. And he should be able to bring that to the table, the cameras, and the race fans while he does analysis for SpeedTV. And it all starts with SpeedTV's coverage of the Daytona 200 on Friday, March 5th at 9 P.M. Eastern. Stay tuned, as this year is getting better every day.

The first time I saw Scott Russell in a professional AMA race was Road America in 1989, the year Russell was team mates with Jamie James on the Yosh Suzuki's and they got a little too excited racing and banging with one another for the win that they took each other out in turn 5 towards the end of the race they handed it to privateer Rich Arnaiz.

The first time I saw Scott race in what I would consider a ride of super-human feat was at the WERA/Formula USA finale at Road Atlanta in late Oct./early Nov. of '90. Russell was running one of Doug Chandler's '90 AMA Championship-winning Team Muzzy Kawasaki superbikes, and had to start the Sunday final on pitlane. This was the year Kenny Roberts put a team together for the F-USA series comprised of Rich Oliver and Robbie Petersen. Oliver was out injured, and Petersen was aboard one of Wayne Rainey's YZ500GP Team Marlboro machines. These bikes in the day were said to have cost over $1M each, and just reaked of exotica. And castor oil and pre-mix. Awesome. Like a chainsaw on acid AND Bolivian marching powder.

Well, having to start tail end to a shrieking 2-stroke GP machine didn't deter Mr. Russell as by lap 5 of the event he had broken the track record and was up to 5th place. He didn't win that day-Petersen won on the smokin' and wailing 500GP Yamaha-but it was Russell who had put on the show. Let alone the smiles on MY face! Truly one of the purest race rides I have ever seen in my life to the day. Needless to say I was a fan for life after this show force.

So to share with you today what I consider great news in getting Scott back into the race tv booth, I've got a few of the many shots I have taken of Scott over the years to get us all into the new week with Daytona practice set to start Wednesday morning March 3rd.

First up, when talking about The Chief and his race wins and championships, this shot of him at Road America in June of '92 felt good to start off with. This was shot just coming out from underneath the old Billy Mitchell Bridge, heading to turn 14 for the final run to the stripe up the hill, during the 750 SuperSport final. This was another race Scott had to start last in on his Team Muzzy Kawasaki-I can't remember why now-and was tearing through the field to try and catch eventual winner Jason Pridmore. He didn't win this one either, but got second to Jason, and later that year clinched his 3rd of 3 AMA 750 SS Championships. This after going 9 for 9 race wins in winning the championship the 2nd of 3 times the year prior.

A little later that summer of '92 we headed over to Mid Ohio and were lucky enough to chase Scott down in the paddock to get him to sign a few pics we had of him. Earlier in the year he had just started running his Troy Lee Designs new moniker, 'The Screaming Chief,' on his helmet AND on the back of his leathers. As Scott was signing for myself and my best bud John Lindley, a friend took the shot of the back of The Chief's leathers as he signed our shots that I had brought along and taken of him. I later got this shot signed as well by him to hang on the wall in the house.

Next up is a shot of Mr. Daytona back at Road Atlanta for the season-ending AMA round in '94. Other then maybe one other race that year, he had pretty much concentrated on trying to defend his '93 World Superbike Championship across the pond, so we didn't see him much Stateside that year. Except the last round, and was it big. Team Muzzy showed up with a ZX-7/750 for Scott and he was on it from the start of first practice. This shot was out of turn 7 which starts the run onto the long back stretch. Back in those days, the superbikes were trapping at about 175-180 there. Scott won the race, Troy Corser on a Fast By Ferracci Ducati won the '94 AMA Superbike Championship.

We then see a shot of Scott talking with Fast Freddie Spencer in the tech line at Road America in June of '91. Freddie's Two Brothers Racing Honda RC-30 superbike was up next as they were teching Scott's Muzzy Kawasaki under the awning that day. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that conversation......

And to wrap up our news coverage for today, we see Scott on his Team Muzzy Kaw at Mid Ohio during practice in the summer of '91. This was shot in an early practice session for the weekend between turns 9 and 1o during superbike practice.

Once again we remind you that 'live' racing at Daytona starts on Wednesday, March 3rd. And the 200 will be shown tape delayed next Friday on SpeedTV at 9 P.M. Eastern on a delayed basis.

Thanks for taking the time to drop in again, and between now and the first of the week we will be back to preview the Daytona Short Track events for AMA Flat Track. We hope to see you back and we'll look forward to it. And we hope you will too!
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Scott Russell to return to SpeedTV broadcast for 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing coverage. Thanks to John and his team at http://www.roadracingworld.com/ for the link to this great piece of news:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=39517

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Scott Russell AMA Hall of Fame biography info:

http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/hofbiopage.asp?id=370

Scott 'Screamin Chief' Russell, Team Muzzy Kaw, Road Atlanta 1994